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This story was submitted to the People's War website by Florence Chew and added to the site with her permission.

I was 13 when war was declared and living in Blackburn. My first memory was someone opening the door and throwing in gas masks for all the family. My identity card number was NZBQ6914. The 4 indicates my position in the family, I was the youngest. I would carry this card around with me.
Another interesting memory was that my father was a fire watcher at night on a rota system. There were wooden posts with square boards on top, on the corner of some streets. A change of colour would indicate that it was a phosphorous attack during a bombing raid. If the board changed to green, sand would have to be used to extinguish the fire as water would feed it. There was only ever one bomb dropped on Blackburn. The newspapers said this was an accident. It fell on the corner of a street in the town but only damaged an unoccupied house. Evacuees came to the Wilpshire area of Blackburn where I lived. They had head lice when they came, so people were reluctant to have them. My grandparents were living with us so we did not have room. My mother was in the WVS, Womens Voluntary Service.
At school, they cut the dinner hour because of the blackout, we had to take sandwiches with us. School had to finish early because of the blackout. I went to Notre Dame Convent School in Blackburn which was 2 to 3 miles from where I lived. I would catch a tram to and from school, it would cost a penny return. Some of them were open air. I left school at 17 in 1943, I wanted to go into horticulture. At 18 you were called up to join the Forces or Nursing. I chose Nursing and went to Manchester to train. I went to Burnage, a baby hospital, The Duchess of York baby Hospital.
We did have bombing raids then, if they went quiet you knew they were coming down. On one occasion, we went into the shelters with the babies we were working with. I did not feel frightened as there was a lot of support and you were all together.
I used to travel home by train to Blackburn. There were no signs to tell you you were at the station, this was to prevent spies from having directions. There were also no road signs for the same reason, so you had to know where you were going.
There was a shortage of petrol, it was rationed, so I travelled by train to get home. I lived in with my nursing job, we shared accommodation. Hospital food was good for hospital staff. You could not buy cream and tinned fruit during the war, but on one occasion we had it dished up. I remember going down to VE night, to Piccadilly Square in Manchester, we went down on a bus. There were so many people cheering and celebrating but it was still very dark as there were no street lights as we were still at war with Japan. The cars and buses had restricted lights to prevent the planes from being guided to any area of habitation. The air raid wardens were also strict in asking householders to put their lights out. Rations were dished up from the shops, on one occasion the butter was rancid but we could not take it back. You had to carry your own sugar with you at the hospital and your own margarine and butter. I had to stop taking sugar as my ration always used to disappear. I still don’t take sugar to this day. Drugs had to come from the U.S.A. and penicillin was in short supply so it was difficult to treat people. They were rationed and had to be kept for the soldiers and people injured in the war effort. There were different categories of hospitals, voluntary hospitals and poor law hospitals. Voluntary hospitals charged patients one penny a week. Poor law hospitals treated people free. This was before the national Health. My brother joined in the Forces in 1943 and was stationed on the south coast as part of the ground staff, as he wore glasses so he could not be a pilot. In 1948, he came home and visited me in London Road, Manchester, I went to meet him at 2.30 in the morning. The police escorted me to the station as they thought I was a street walker, as Piccadilly was the area they were. You were safe walking out alone at night, 2 or 3 in the morning in the dark. It was pitch black, you would not meet anyone,.

I would work an 80 hour week at 17. From 7.30 in the morning until 8 o clock at night, with an hour for lunch and half an hour for tea. You just accepted this as it was wartime, as everyone else was doing it. When I was 21 in 1947 at Ancoats Hospital in Manchester, we got stuck in the lift as it was overcrowded. There were no engineers available as it was Boxing Day, so we were stuck for over an hour. When they forced the doors open we had to jump out between floors and be caught. The matron was displeased as it blocked the turnover of staff, but she let me off as it was my birthday. I cut my 21st birthday cake with the surgeon’s knife!
All people aged 18 — 40 who were healthy were in the Forces or helping in the war effort.
We would go to the top of Mellor, a high point in Blackburn, and watch the planes come over bombing Liverpool and watch the flames go up. I was always aware of my father being worried about me as I was 13 when war started but I was too innocent and unaware to be worried. My father was too old to be in the services, he had been in the first world war and had a bad facial wound. My mother was too old too.
My father was a Miller, before the war bread was bleached with chlorine, this was stopped during the war. Calcium and Bran was added during the war to help improve the diet. Bleaching of bread was stopped but came back after the war. Dried egg was smashing, Wooltons’ Restaurants would serve up dried egg on toast which was good, concentrated orange juice was good too. National Dried Milk was for babies. Babies had their own special gas masks, they would have to be put in the gas masks, instead of it being put over the face like adults.
After the war, I trained to be a Midwife and Health Visitor in Birmingham and later on I trained to be a teacher.

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